


Old-Fashioned Love Song

by SushiOwl



Series: Sinestro/Arin Sur [5]
Category: Green Lantern (Comic)
Genre: Cute, F/M, Heartwarming, Marriage Proposal, Sad, Silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-26
Updated: 2012-08-26
Packaged: 2017-11-12 23:34:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/496910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SushiOwl/pseuds/SushiOwl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sinestro wants everything to be perfectly right, and then it goes so very wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Old-Fashioned Love Song

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mariana](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Mariana).



> Because her art inspires me.

Arin Sur dominated his thoughts. He was more than capable of completing his work, but his mind kept drifting to her smile. At inappropriate times, he heard her gorgeous laughter in his ears. Her cute bare feet ran in circles around his head. And when his thoughts settled on certain things, well... he had to take a break.

So, as he could not get her out of his head, the only logical thing was to marry the blasted woman. And the thought of having her around all the time very nearly almost gave him the urge to giggle. That alone appalled him.

Korugarian wedding ceremonies were things of grandeur, but the proposals were rather simple and standoffish. Arin Sur was anything but simple and standoffish. He assumed she would want to be asked in the way of her people, as she had already halfheartedly complained about the cold nature of his people. She couldn't help it. She was so full of warmth and joy that it tended to get everywhere.

So he decided to research Ungaran traditions. They were a very family-oriented people, as he had already observed. An event such as his proposal would not be a private thing, and despite the fact that gnawed at him a bit he was more than willing to include Abin Sur if it would give her happiness. They were also a laid-back patriarchal society, so Abin's blessing would be required.

Then came the matter of the proposal gift. Korugarians did not exchange tangible items; they simply merged their assets and careers. Ungaran brides-to-be were given bracelets. The book he was reading informed him that it symbolized the husband's hand around her wrist, guiding her through life. He had no plans to do that, but he would happily hang onto her hand as she dragged him places.

He did locate the perfect bracelet though. It was delicately woven silver with green stones. There was something carefree about the design, which was what he was after. Of course he had to go off world to find it.

With his proposal speech carefully rehearsed and his nerves under control, he went to sector 2814 to search out his good friend.

"You're going to propose?" Abin Sur asked him, his eyes a bit wide.

"If you have no objections," Sinestro replied evenly. He would not allow himself to worry that his friend may not, in fact, want him to marry his precious little sister. That would _destroy_ his plans, not just for that day but for his future.

"Of course not," Abin said with a big smile, clapping his hand on Sinestro's shoulder. "I have never seen my sister light up they way she does when I mention your name. You give her love and happiness, as she deserves. You have my blessing, Thaal."

Sinestro controlled his relieved sigh, before he set his own hand on Abin's opposite shoulder. "Will you be there with me when I ask her?"

Abin laughed. "Going for tradition, are you?"

With a nod, Sinestro smiled. "Yes. That is the most logical path."

When they reached the home that Abin and Arin shared, Sinestro felt his pulse quicken and his throat stick to itself. He was not accustomed to the feeling of nervousness, and it only escalated when they found Arin in the humble garden dome at the side of the house. She was sitting on a marble bench and reading, a little smile on her face. Her shoes were off and nowhere to be found. There was a wall of luscious green vines and wide white flowers behind her, giving her pale pink skin an ethereal quality.

Sinestro couldn't have picked a better place to propose if he had tried.

"Sister," Abin said when he didn't move, apparently understanding that he was struck dumb by the vision of her.

She looked up and smiled to brightly at them. "Brother. Thaal." She stood, starting to walk towards them.

"Wait," Sinestro said, holding his hand up to stop her, and she paused in surprise. He moved over to her and took her left hand in his, turning her palm up and laying his right hand over it. She blinked up at him.

"Arin Sur," he began, lowering himself to one knee before her and drawing up his script in his mind. "You are the woman I want in my life." He pulled out the bracelet.

She drew in a breath, holding it in her chest and letting out a tiny squeak.

"With your brother's permission and blessing, I would like to request your hand in marriage." He unhooked the bracelet and brought it up under her wrist. "Would you do me the honor?"

Before he could enclose the bracelet, she whipped her hand away. He looked up immediately and was taken aback by her expression. Her brows were pulled down, and she was frowning. He had never witnessed such anger in her eyes before. He couldn't even move as she stepped away, glancing between him and her brother.

"No," she said, and she left.

It took far too long before Sinestro could react outwardly, and when he did he just looked at Abin, his mouth open and his eyes wide in confusion. His friend looked as if he would rather be anywhere else right then.

Arin refused to see anyone the rest of that day, and eventually Sinestro went home. What had he done wrong? Had he been so blinded by his adoration that he had assumed he and Arin had something they did not? That couldn't be it. She had never made any indication that she did not want him with her always.

For the next few days, his every waking thought was about her. Most of his dreaming thoughts were as well. He couldn't work. It was good that there were no impending threats upon the safety of his sector or the universe, because everyone would have died while he pined. 

Each effort at contact was refused. The flowers he had delivered to her were returned to sender.

He was going out of his head. What had he done!

Finally he had enough. This lack of communication was going to drive him into madness. He went to Ungara to search her out.

"She's not here," Abin told him solemnly from the doorway of their home.

"Where is she?" Sinestro asked, puffing out his chest a bit. He would hunt through the universe for her if need be.

Abin didn't answer right away, but the look on Sinestro's face must have convinced him. "She told me not to say, but she went to the waterfalls."

Sinestro nodded to him. "My thanks." He took off before his friend could say anything else.

Again the bountifully lush terrain of Ungara irritated him, but he was beyond determined to find Arin that he didn't even notice the pass of time. When he spotted her, an iron grip clenched around his heart.

She was sitting on a flat rock, her legs pulled up and her knees under her chin. She looked so sad.

He floated down out of the sky next to her, his feet pointed and his back straight. He was not going to act desperate. "Arin," he said softly.

She didn't even look at him, though her shoulders tensed. "Hello, Thaal," she replied with such a quiet kind of mourning in her voice that he longed to wrap himself about her and protect her from those emotions.

He wasn't exactly sure what to say first. Eventually he settled on, "Did I do something to upset you?"

She sighed, before she rocked forward on her feet and stood. "Yes," she told him, before she looked at him. There was no anger on her face. He would have been more comfortable if there were. "Why did you have to propose to me that way?"

He took a steadying breath. "I thought it was an appropriate time to further our relationship--"

"No, Thaal!" she all but screamed, stepping off the rock and moving towards him. "That is not what I meant. Why did you have to do it in that fashion? And why in front of Abin?"

"I thought you would have wanted your brother there."

"Oh sure." She threw her hands up, her anger coming back now. "And you thought it would be best to ask him for _permission_!"

Now he was beginning to understand, but he was still compelled to defend his actions. "I read it was Ungaran tradition to ask the eldest male in the family for the right."

"To the Negative Space with tradition!" she snapped at him, and he took half a step backward. "It is my choice to get married, and I would do it without Abin's damn blessing if I wanted to! If I wanted a traditional marriage, I would not want to marry a Korugarian!"

How was he going to salvage this? "Arin, I--"

"No! You shut up! You need to understand something. My brother does not control my life. I am tired of everyone referring to me as a Green Lantern's sister. If by marrying you I will also be known as a Green Lantern's wife, I will not have it!" She turned away from him with her arms folding over her chest.

Sinestro stared at her back, his spine slowly icing over and his heart retreating in his ribcage. His eyes were threatening to sting. In all his plans and preparation, he had never thought she would say no and mean it. "Then you do not want to marry me," he said, his voice even.

Her shoulders drew up. "Not if you believe I am something to be claimed, no." She turned towards him, and there were tears beginning to fall from her eyes. "What you said when you asked. You planned it, didn't you? You had everything worked out beforehand."

Wordlessly, he nodded.

She moved toward him, close enough to touch but not reaching for him. "Give me something spontaneous. Prove to me that your goal is not simply to gain a wife." She gazed at him so intensely. "Tell me how you feel for me."

Sinestro was taken aback. He did not know how to articulate such things. He took a breath, closed his eyes, then let it out through his nose and opened them again. For once, he spoke with no destination for his words. "I have never known someone I cannot predict like you," he said, and he looked briefly startled. That almost sounded insulting. "But that's not a bad thing in you, although I hate it in others. You break up the monotony and make me feel anticipation. Beautiful things around you only enhance the way you enthrall me. When I am not by your side, I can only think about the next time when I will be. You fill a space I hadn't realized was there. I cannot--" He swallowed the lump in his throat, lifting his hand to his lips and taking in a shaky breath.

She took his other hand in hers, looking up at him with a quiet and gentle expression. Her blue eyes were pools of sincerity. 

"I cannot imagine a life without you." 

They shared a long look, each of them trying to find something in one another's eyes. They took a moment, as if to get reacquainted, and then suddenly Arin's face began to change. She flushed, and her lips pulled drastically to the sides and her eyes welled up and spilled over with a torrent of tears.

"You idiot!" she said, smacking his chest. "Why didn't you say that in the first place?" She threw herself against him, holding him tight and sobbing wildly.

He held her back, pressed his lips against his hair and fighting back his own tears. He agreed with her. He really was an idiot. But he would learn.

They held each other for a long time, and eventually when Arin could breathe she pulled away and looked up at him. Her face was a mess, but all he wanted to do was cover her in kisses. "Ask me again," she hiccuped.

His chin trembled, and he started to go down on one knee, but she held him up. He laughed and kissed her forehead. "Will you marry me?"

"Y-yes," she sobbed, burying her face into his neck. "A thousand times, yes." Abruptly she pulled back. "Where's the bracelet?"

He froze. Shit. "I left it at my home."

She erupted with laughter so overwhelming that he had to hold her up. "That's okay!" she said breathlessly between giggles. "You can give it to me later." She leaped up into his arms, her bare feet dangling and her arms tightly around his neck. Their noses were smooshed together, and he couldn't see straight for how close she was to him. "I love you, Thaal Sinestro."

He kissed her. It was awkward, messy and perfect. "I love you too, Arin Sur."

**Author's Note:**

> "Just an old-fashioned love song  
> One I'm sure they wrote for you and me  
> Just an old-fashioned love song  
> Comin' down in 3-part harmony
> 
> To weave our dreams upon and listen to each evening  
> When the lights are low  
> To underscore our love affair  
> With tenderness and feeling that we've come to know"  
> Old-Fashioned Love Song - Three Dog Night


End file.
